Monkton to Malawi 2022
The first Monkton trip to Malawi for four years took place over half term with thirty three pupils coming along. Previous visitors have described it as a fortnight that gives them a very good perspective on life and makes them appreciate what they have over in their busy first world lives.
As ever Fisherman’s Rest, our hosts, provided simple but comfortable accommodation with excellent food and a pool looking out over the Rift Valley.
We were thrown straight into our programme with four school visits to do some teaching and gain a feel for how difficult it can be to attend school in Malawi and learn in classrooms with just a few desks and a blackboard. We also visited Kachere 2 Primary School that Monkton has a partnership with and observed the feeding programme; we had raised £8000 to feed all the pupils at the school every morning for a year. The schools were great fun especially when singing and dancing with the pupils and a game called Like-I-Do started up run by the amazing Banas and Lloyd who are Fisherman’s Rest helpers.
The visit to Chikwawa prison was a very moving experience with 441 inmates living together in cells of 70 men in an area half the size of a tennis court and just one toilet per cell and a thin blanket to sleep on. The bike ride down the Rift valley was brilliant as were the rides back up on the back of big lorries; we got to see proper rural Malawi while cycling.
Really inspiring was going to church in the African bush; the churches were simple mud constructions and the singing by the congregations amazing and unforgettable.
We also went to Majete Game Park and saw elephants, wild dogs, zebra, hippos and many bird and buck species; sleeping under canvas in the wild for a night was a little unnerving.
Two days at the luxurious Makokola lodge allowed us to have some rest and ease back into our first world existence. It’s impossible to list all the experiences we had but for many of us the trip was life changing.
Take a look at some of the image highlights below.
